Dropbox acquires bring-your-own-device security company MobileSpan

Dropbox has acquired MobileSpan, a company that helps enterprise employees access content behind firewalls securely. MobileSpan is going to shut down at the end of 2014 and active development on the software will stop immediately.

Dropbox has been spending the last year and a half focusing on making Dropbox For Business secure for larger enterprises. All four MobileSpan team members will be joining Dropbox.

Last week Dropbox also acquired DropTalk. MobileSpan had raised around $2.3 million in funding from True Ventures and K9 Ventures since launching in 2011. Companies install the MobileSpan gateway at an on-premises Windows server and distributes MobileSpan for iOS and MobileSpan for Windows desktop apps to employees.

After being approved by IT, employees can access the specific documents, folders, and applications that is related to their work. What makes bring-your-own-device environments challenging is device fragmentation.

Here is what the MobileSpan team wrote following the acquisition:

We have exciting news to share from the land of the Uncloud. MobileSpan is joining forces with Dropbox to tackle enterprise productivity in the mobile era.

A couple of years ago, two ex-Google Chrome engineers and an EIR from Foundation Capital set out to help enterprises transition from desktop-centric systems to a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) world — in a secure, seamless and enterprise-friendly manner.

We believe that we have come a long way: MobileSpan Gateway and the MobileSpan apps for iOS and Windows allow secure ad-hoc access to business content and editing of Office documents living behind the corporate firewall with native UX on each platform. Yet we still have some ways to go before business content is freed from its desktop-focused roots and is made readily usable yet secure on modern mobile devices.

Joining forces with Dropbox will allow us to rapidly accelerate the realization of that dream. We feel that our long-term vision for enterprise productivity and collaboration aligns greatly with the vision for Dropbox for Business, which allows employees to securely share and collaborate and is used by companies like Spotify, National Geographic and Under Armour.

What does this mean for the MobileSpan product? We will cease active development on MobileSpan to focus our energies and expertise onDropbox for Business. Existing customers can continue to use the product until Dec 31st 2014. We’ll help any individual customers who would like to transition to Dropbox for Business.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to all our customers and users whose support and feedback was instrumental in honing MobileSpan into a great enterprise productivity tool, as well as our investors at True Ventures, K9 Ventures and Greylock Partners. We’re excited to join Dropbox to break new ground and reach greater heights.